Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-28-Speech-3-179"
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"en.20040128.14.3-179"2
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"Mr President, it is quite opportune that I am the last speaker, as I want to add a note of optimism to the debate, which until now has been rather gloomy. I appreciate that these are challenging times for the textile industry. I appreciate too that we are running into a new era where import controls will be different and a new sector will be joining our textile industry. But, to inject a note of optimism, just as I said in the debate in the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, one has only to look at the jackets and suits we are all wearing and ask where they were made. I will tell you where they were made: in Europe.
This jacket that I am wearing was made by Crombie, a local textile firm in my town in England; it is a good, English suit. I do not know where the cloth came from, but it was the skills of British workers and those of the textile industry in Europe that took a low-quality commodity product and transformed it into a high-quality, high-value product – that is the future for the textile industry. Different parts of the textile industry will find different routes, some more technical than others, some craft-related; some will go in other directions. That is the future for our industry. This should be the message going out to the industry from the Commission White Paper.
We must be sure that when the Commission acts, our textile and clothing sector – much of it being made up of small companies – is able to invest in new technology and production techniques. It must be able to find ways to add value to the basic products that we may be importing from elsewhere. We must also – and this is a point which has not been previously mentioned – protect our industry from counterfeiting. This has become increasingly vital. Counterfeiting is a very serious issue for high-value, quality products, and is an issue we must address. I see no reference to this at all in the White Paper.
Finally, if we get it right for the textile industry, we can learn some very important lessons for other industrial sectors. We should also be looking at leather goods and footwear, and using textiles as an industrial sector flagship that can lead the way in this new century, with European workers able to earn a living from producing high-value, quality products."@en1
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